“The market value of mature cruise ships has reduced significantly in the last 12 months and it has been decided that the loss-making Discovery will be disposed of at the end of this summer,” All Leisure said in a financial press release. “Following the planned disposal, the company’s underlying profits should benefit from the elimination of Discovery trading losses, which are currently in the region of £4m per annum.”

The ship is operated by U.K.-based Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV) under a joint venture with All Leisure. CMV said the Discovery will operate its full published 2014 cruise schedule, which is 70 percent sold.

“Having contributed the vast majority of business for Discovery, we are pleased with the results we have achieved from our side,” Chris Coates, CMV’s commercial director, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with All Leisure Holidays, our joint venture partners during the 2014 season, and will shortly be releasing full details of our 2015 program.”

CMV also operates a two smaller ocean passenger vessels — the 800-passenger Marco Polo, which operated for the former Orient Lines from 1993 to 2008, and the 600-passenger Astor — as well as the 164-passenger Vienna I river ship. The latter two vessels joined CMV after it recently took over German-based TransOcean Kreuzfahrten. With offices in the U.K., Australia, Fort Lauderdale and now Germany, the CMV Group will carry in excess of 70,000 ocean and river cruise passengers during 2014.

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